My name is Andrew Hicks and I am going into my third year of Mechanical Engineering at Carleton University. I was a participant this past year in The Walmart Green Student Challenge with my friend Taylor Schaefer who is going into his third year of Sustainable and Renewable Architectural Engineering.
My journey with Taylor started as a class project in which we were asked to come up with a way to improve the Carleton University campus. With both Taylor and I very interested and engaged in sustainability, we chose to propose improving the university by implementing a composting initiative where we could divert the nearly 1 ton of food waste that Carleton produces each day and convert it into usable fertilizer compost. We then began speaking to a company called Food Cycle Science, based out of Cornwall ON, about their composting machine called a Food Cycler that can convert up to 3300 lbs. of food waste into organic fertilizer in less than 24 hours. This would eliminate the University’s worries of rodents, smell and off-gassing associated with regular means of composting, and not to mention the longer period of time (4 months) to turn the food waste into fertilizer compost. The project went very well and we received attention and interest from the VP of Campus Services to implement this method of composting at Carleton University. From our class project we then began working on The Walmart Green Student Challenge.
The Walmart Green Student Challenge (WGSC) asked for students from Universities and Colleges across Canada to submit green business plans that they had come up with in order to help businesses and other organizations become more environmentally friendly. When Taylor told me about the Walmart Green Student Challenge I knew there was an opportunity for our composting project to become something bigger and I started thinking of ways in which we could turn the composting project we had completed to help green up our school, into a business plan that could help businesses and other organizations have a positive impact on our environment. Our business plan states that a retail company like Walmart would contribute to the purchase of a food cycler machine for a large university/ college located in the same city as the retailer. The university/college can then use the machine to handle all or some of their food waste produced every day, and turn it into a useable nutrient-rich fertilizer – all composted within 24 hours. This fertilizer is then bagged by staff/students onsite and provided to the local Walmart or other retail store to be sold. The fertilizer is then purchased by consumers and used to grow more food, completing a restorative food waste cycle. The University then saves money on its waste haulage with a payback period of 3 – 4 years and the retailer makes a profit on the sale of the fertilizer with a payback period of around 2 years on the Food Cycler machine. Both the university and business benefit from improved brand and image and attraction of new employees and customers/students. To make a long story short, Taylor and I did very well with our business plan and made it to the top five out of 200 teams in Canada where we presented our business plan in Toronto, in front of the CEO of Walmart Canada, the CEO of S.C. Johnson, the CEO of CN Rail, the President of Bullfrog power, the Managing Director of Google, and the CEO of Ford Motor Company Canada as well as a live 300 person audience full of other executives and a live webcast.
The experience of creating our business plan and proposal all the way up to the Final WGSC event and presentation was unbelievable. In the months leading up to the event I learned a great deal about what it was to put a real proposal and business plan together for a potential customer and the amount of work that goes into to doing something like that properly. Through creating my own business plan for this challenge I was able to see the huge possibility and opportunity associated with green business when organizations work together, further confirming that working for a business in the area of environmental sustainability may be what I want to do after graduating University. At the final event Taylor and I stayed for 2 nights all expenses paid in Toronto at the Sheraton Hotel. We got to meet and spend time with 10 other students from other Universities across Canada, all engaged and excited about making a difference in the world, learning and making connections with both young and future leaders. On the day of the event we not only met 6 of Canada’s top CEO’s but also made a number of connections with other business representatives and executives, all who were eager to learn more about our business plan and connect with us after the event. Apart from winning $3, 500 and networking with business leaders and other like-minded students, I am also now working for the Food Cycle Science Company as a sales agent, using connections that I made through the Walmart Green Student Challenge as my potential customers.
Through this 6 month journey from my composting class project to the creation of the food waste diversion and conversion business plan, all the way to the WGSC, it provided me not only with better clarity on what future career path interests me, but also a job opportunity, and connections to people in multiple organizations. This experience has taught me that when you focus on the things that you are passionate about, you can achieve successes and open opportunities that you may never have thought possible.
By Andrew Hicks